Brothers
by Mononoke-hime x sukai kurora
Summary: Ten years after the battle to decide the king of the demon world, a guest appears at Kiyomaro's doorstep.


_ Brothers_

Kiyomaro Takamine was sitting at his desk doing paperwork when he heard the doorbell ring. The twenty-five year old man stood, listening for other subtle sounds. _Gash? _Kiyomaro wondered if Gash had found a way into the human world. It had been ten years since they had said goodbye to each other. Kiyomaro shook his head, remembering that his demon partner never knocked when entering a house. _It must be someone else, _he thought with a sigh. Kiyomaro stilled lived in Mochinoki City and in the house he grew up in. His mother had voiced her concern about not living somewhere new where no one else knew him when Kiyomaro married Megumi six years ago, but he had said that _"this house has too many memories for me to leave it." _Kiyomaro still remembered the empathy in his mother's eyes, and of how she nodded. _She knew I was thinking about Gash, _Kiyomaro thought as his footsteps echoed on the wooden floor. _I still think about him even though it's been ten years since the battle ended. _Not much had changed in his house. Kiyomaro's and Megumi's wedding picture was the first thing a guest would see upon entering the house. A _tokonoma _graced the living room with the picture of Megumi's parents resting there. Kiyomaro and Megumi had taught their young son Atsuo that he must bow to the _tokonoma _when he walked by. Although only Atsuo was only four years old, their son understood how important the _tokonoma _was to his parents. _Maybe it's them, _Kiyomaro thought with a smile. Megumi and their son had left the house an hour ago for grocery shopping. _"We won't be long Kiyomaro." _But when Kiyomaro opened the door, the adored faces of Megumi and Atsuo did not grace him. Instead, a short teenage boy with brown hair stood in the doorway.

"Can I come in?" The boy's voice was deep despite his young age, and Kiyomaro noticed of how much emotion came from it. _He seems uncertain of what he should do and of me, _the Japanese man thought as he heard the slight tremor in the boy's voice. He nodded, and the boy entered his house, warily looking back and forth. As the door was closed and as the boy took off his shoes, Kiyomaro took this time to observe the boy. Brown hair covered most of his forehead; Kiyomaro could barely see his eyes. His skin was so pale Kiyomaro could see veins beneath the skin. The boy was wearing a dark blue school uniform complete with a jacket. He had no belongings with him. _A runaway? _Kiyomaro wondered. _Today's graduation day for students. I put him around thirteen years old. _His thoughts continued as the boy stood motionless before him. He didn't look him in the eye. _Who is he? _Kiyomaro didn't use the Answer Talker very much. He only used it in desperate situations. It would also be dangerous for him and his family if he used it every time. When the answer came to him, Kiyomaro couldn't speak for a moment. He stared at the boy who had been his enemy so many years ago. _How could he remember me? He was only… No, he couldn't forget._

"You're…Vino?" There was silence. "Vino Kowalski?"

"It took you this long to remember me." It was a statement rather than a question. Vino finally looked at Kiyomaro, and there was hatred in his gray eyes. "Unlike you, I haven't forgotten." Vino took this time to stare at the picture of Kiyomaro and Megumi. "Unlike you, I haven't moved on." He took a step forward to the older man. "I was barely two years old when I became the human partner to my demon. I still remember when my _brother _found me." Kiyomaro saw sadness appear in his eyes for a brief moment before rage overcame them. "You only remember him as the demon who wanted to destroy the demon world. You hate him as much as I loved him." Vino's eyes glassed over, seemingly overwhelmed by memories. "Clear Note was the only person in the world who cared about me. I have no memories of my life before him. I still remember that day, when he found me lying in a garbage can with filth all over my body." The teenager bit his lip and swerved his head toward Kiyomaro. "You killed him without knowing who he was!"

"Clear Note was trying to destroy the demon world, Vino." Kiyomaro spoke in a calm controlled voice. He was surprised himself that he didn't snap at Vino in anger. Somehow he felt for the boy's pain no matter how misguided it was. "He was willing to kill the demons in his own world for his own pleasure. If we didn't stop him from destroying everyone, he would have died too." Shock and horror plagued Vino's face when Kiyomaro spoke those words. _So he didn't know._ "Clear Note was planning to destroy himself after he destroyed his own world." The boy was breathing hard now and his gray eyes were brimming with tears. Kiyomaro tried to comfort Vino, but the boy violently slapped his hand away.

"I don't...I don't…" Vino's voice was thick with confusion and pain. "He…he said he would destroy the world and then come back for me." His lips were now stained with blood. "Clear…he wouldn't…_leave _me." Murderous rage fired in his eyes. _"He wouldn't leave me!"_

"Clear Note lied to you because he knew that you wouldn't agree to complete his plan if it meant his destruction. He meant too much to you, Vino. He decided to spare you the truth so he would have his plan completed…without any complications." The boy's tears were now dripping onto the floor, and he was shaking.

"You may think of him as a heartless demon that didn't care about anyone else. You were almost right though." A grim smile appeared on his face. "He only cared about me." Delicate silence echoed in the house. "He was the one who named me. I guess we were both abandoned children." The boy turned to Kiyomaro. His young face was tight with emotion. "Clear didn't tell me much about his past, but he said that he hadn't felt love until he met me. All his goals for annihilation stopped whenever he was around me. I know you don't understand me, but Clear…was everything to me. I was everything to him too. We were both abandoned children who found love in each other. When he was angry, I was the one who calmed him. When I was afraid from a nightmare and crying, he was the one who held me until I fell asleep. He took care of me. _We _took care of each other. It was…us against the world." Vino was crying in earnest now. Unlike all the times before, he didn't stop to wipe his tears. "Clear and I…we were brothers. We lived for each other. And you took that away from me." His voice was surprisingly calm at the last sentence. Or rather, not calm, but empty. When Kiyomaro approached him, Vino didn't flinch as the older man embraced him in his arms. "He promised…he wouldn't leave me. He would...come back for me when it was over. That's what he said. I felt safe in his arms. It was as if he was…my man of the world."

_I see, _Kiyomaro thought as Vino fell silent. He felt the boy's tears soak into his shirt, but his mind was elsewhere. _We seem to think that our enemies do not love. How could they if they do disastrous things without a thought or with a smile? But they do love…just as Clear Note and Vino have shown me._ He thought of the time when Professor Riddle told him that Vino's parents couldn't be found. The old man seemed to be sad. _"Right now he's an orphanage Kiyomaro. He doesn't want to go back where he comes from. I could gather that much from when I suggested we visit Europe. A gave him a last name, but he seems to like the name he had better. Vino's home is here in Japan, it seems…and the social services tell me they don't see anyone adopting him. His experience with Clear Note is too deeply ingrained in his mind. Now it's up to him to forget the demon that had been with him." We thought that Clear Note had traumatized Vino, but this turned out not to be true. It seems that our enemies loved each other as much as we loved our own demons. _Vino slowly stopped crying, and licked his lips. An uncomfortable expression was on his face, and Kiyomaro gently let him go. _Gash… _Kiyomaro thought of his _own _brother, the one who had changed him from who he had been. _We don't know as much as we think, do we?_

"The reason why I hate you is because…you destroyed the one person who I loved like a brother." Swollen gray eyes met golden. "You killed him. I know this because you hate him for what he tried to do. The King took his privilege and erased him from this world." Vino put his shaking hands over his heart and closed his eyes. "You killed Clear because of what he set out to do and you gave him his own medicine." Vino's hands limply went to his sides, and Kiyomaro was horrified to see the despair and agony in the boy's gaze. _All these years he's thought… _"I understand why you did it…but my heart shatters into fragments when I think about not seeing Clear again. _I'll never see him again because of you!"_

"Gash didn't kill Clear Note."

"What?" Stunned gray orbs met Kiyomaro's gaze, and he could feel the hope radiating from the boy.

"Gash didn't kill Clear Note. He wouldn't have even if your demon managed to destroy the demon world. He's safe, Vino. He's been reincarnated into a small boy named Shiro. You will see him again." For a moment Vino didn't move. His eyes were unfocused and his breathing was so shallow Kiyomaro was about to check his pulse when Vino's new raspy voice echoed in his ears.

"All these years I thought he was gone. All those years in the orphanage and in school I thought…he was gone forever. The only thing that saved me from myself was Clear's voice in my head. He was able to get me through the lonely years of elementary school and the emptiness I felt when no one else become the one who saved me. _Hatred _saved me." A small laugh escaped from Vino, and Kiyomaro found himself smiling from the boy's happiness. "Now I know that Clear's safe. That's all I wanted when we battled. I wanted him to be safe and always with me…and now I have both." Tears streaked down Vino's cheeks, but they were from happiness this time. A smile graced his lips. "Now I know that Clear's waiting for me…and I want to make him proud of me this time. I want him to see me as I saw him. A strong and brave protector." The boy bowed low to Kiyomaro. _"Domo arigatou gozaimasu_, Kiyomaro-_san_. I wouldn't have found out the truth if it wasn't for you."

"You're welcome, Vino," Kiyomaro said kindly. As the door closed in front of him, Kiyomaro remembered his own promise to Gash. _All of us are the same when it comes to someone precious to you, right, Gash?_


End file.
